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“Microsoft Monday” takes a look back at the past week of news related to Microsoft. This week, “Microsoft Monday” includes details about new laptops, a glitch being blamed on Microsoft Surfaces during the AFC game on Sunday, the acquisition of MinecraftEdu, an accusation from Amnesty International about child mining, Office for iOS now supporting 3D Touch, the Sway app receiving several new features, a change in the Xbox One backward compatibility, the Surface Pro power cable recall program and more.

Microsoft Releases New Versions Of The Surface Book And Surface Pro

Photo credit: Microsoft

Microsoft has replaced older versions of its Surface Books and Surface Pros with newer versions. Specifically, Microsoft added 1TB SSDs, new Intel Core i7 processors and 16GB RAM options to the new Surface Books and Surface Book Pros. The new Surface Pro 4 is priced at $2,699 and the new Surface Book is priced at $3,199.

Glitch Blamed On Microsoft Surface During AFC Championship, But It Was Actually Due To Network Issues

Example of Surface being used by a football team / Photo credit: Microsoft

Microsoft is reportedly paying the NFL $400 million as part of a marketing deal that includes Surface tablets being used during games. However, the Surface received some bad publicity during the first half of the AFC Championship game between the New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos on Sunday because there was a problem with the tablets. CBS said that the Surface tablets -- which are used for reviewing plays -- were not working for the Patriots.

Microsoft said that the glitch was due to connectivity problems. “Our team on the field has confirmed the issue was not related to the tablets themselves but rather an issue with the network,” said Microsoft. “We worked with our partners who manage the network to ensure the issue was resolved quickly.”

This is not the first time that the Surface tablets caused problems during games and some players took their aggression out on the tablets over the last year:

When the Patriots lost the game, it did not help Microsoft's publicity either. And Patriots coach Bill Belichick said this was not the first time that the Surface tablets malfunctioned. "It's a pretty common problem. We have ways of working through it. There's really nothing you can do. It's not like the headsets where the other sides are really affected. You deal with what you deal with," said Belichick via CBS Sports. That is why the team prints photographs of formations rather than depending on the Surfaces while playing at home and on the road.

Another problem with Microsoft's deal with the NFL is that the announcers repeatedly referred to the Surface devices as iPads. But when the malfunction happened on Sunday, the announcers associated the problem with the Surface tablets. Yet the issue had to do with network stability at the stadium, which Microsoft does not have any control over.

Acquires “Minecraft for Schools” Company MinecraftEdu

Minecraft / Image Credit: Microsoft

Last week, Microsoft announced it acquired MinecraftEdu, a school-ready version of Minecraft developed by Teacher Gaming LLC. MinecraftEdu is used in more than 7,000 classrooms across 40 countries. This deal complements Microsoft’s acquisition of Sweden-based Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014 -- which is the company that developed the original Minecraft game. Going forward, Microsoft will also be investing in an expanded version of Minecraft for the classroom called Minecraft: Education Edition. Minecraft: Education Edition will be available as a free trial this summer with an expanded set of features.

Microsoft said Minecraft: Education Edition will be “shaped by a growing community of educators throughout its development this spring and through the educator community online at http://education.minecraft.net.” MinecraftEdu will still be available for its customers and Minecraft: Education Edition will be offered the first year for free.

The terms of the deal were undisclosed. The acquisition was just for the game rather than Teacher Gaming LLC as a whole.

Microsoft, , Samsung And Other Tech Giants Linked To Child Mining, According To Amnesty International Report

Last week, Forbes senior new producerAbigail Tracy reported that Microsoft, Apple, Samsung and several other consumer electronics companies have been linked to child mining of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since portable electronics like smartphones, laptops and tablets are becoming ubiquitous, the demand for cobalt used in rechargeable batteries has substantially increased.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is responsible for over 50% of the world’s cobalt production. And a portion of that cobalt is sourced from artisanal mines in the southern part of Congo that employs children, according to a report fromAmnesty International andAfrican Resources Watch.

“The report levels that these companies did not follow guidelines from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that are purposed to ‘ensure that companies are not profiting from, or contributing to, serious human rights abuses in the mines that they source from, or anywhere else along their supply chains,’” reported Tracy in her article.

Photo credit: Amnesty International

Between April and May 2015, Amnesty International and Afrewatch researchers spoke to 87 current and former cobalt miners from five mine sites in the Congo, of which 15 were children. And the researchers also spoke with 18 cobalt traders, including a major buyer known as Congo Dongfang Mining International (CDM). CDM is a subsidiary of a China-based cobalt supplier called Huayou Cobalt. Huayou supplies lithium-ion battery components to Ningbo Shanshan, Tianjin Bamo and L&F Materials. And those three companies supply batteries to a large number of consumer electronics companies. Amnesty International contacted 16 companies that are either direct or indirect customers of the three battery component manufacturers.

In response to Amnesty International's research, Microsoft said:

“We currently contract with this supplier [Tianjin Lishen] to provide a very limited number of batteries for a product development project. To our knowledge, Lishen batteries are not used in any product currently sold by Microsoft. Due to the small volumes used, Tianjin Lishen is not listed as a Microsoft Top 100 Hardware Supplier List… We took immediate action by asking Tianjin Lishen to remove this reference [on their website] to Microsoft as it is a misuse of the Microsoft name and implies incorrectly that we have a major contractual relationship. Lishen has complied with Microsoft’s request.”

When Tracy requested a comment from Microsoft, the Redmond giant added:

“Microsoft is fully committed to the responsible sourcing of raw materials used in our products. That is why we work closely with and support organizations like Pact that are focused on addressing human rights issues in mining. We are specifically engaged with them on a pilot project to eradicate child labor in the Katanga region of the Congo related to cobalt mining.”

Last week, Microsoftreleased updates for its Office for iOS apps to support 3D Touch, thus enabling Quick Actions in the Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps. Office for iOS also now supports Apple Pencil for usage on the iPad Pro.

Quick Actions

The Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps now support Quick Actions for creating new documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Quick Actions will also show your recently opened files. And the Office for iOS update added the ability to search for files saved in Office using the Spotlight search feature in iOS devices. So if you created a spreadsheet called “Taxes 2015” on Excel, you can search for it using Spotlight with those keywords.

Apple Pencil Integration

Microsoft has released new inking tools for Office for iPad and iPad Pro to make it easier to use your finger or Apple Pencil to work on documents. The update included a new Draw tab that has been added to the Office ribbon.

Photo credit: Microsoft

There is also a new “Instant Inking” feature that senses the approach of an active pen so that it starts inking instantly.

Photo credit: Microsoft

And “Ink to Shape” lets users transform hand-drawn shapes to perfect-sized shapes in order to create customizable diagrams and process flows. For example, sketching a few circles together creates a perfect Venn diagram.

Photo credit: Microsoft

The Word, Excel and PowerPoint apps are available on the Apple App Store as a free download. However, Office 365 costs $6.99 per month — which is necessary for creating and editing documents on the iPad Pro. The free version of the app simply allows you to just view the documents.